COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - Opening the 2020 campaign, the University of Evansville baseball team heads to Cookeville, Tenn. for a three-game series with Tennessee Tech on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
 

Evansville at Tennessee Tech
Date | Time	Fri., Feb. 14 | 3 PM Sat., Feb. 15 | 2 PM Sun., Feb. 16 | 1 PM
Location	Cookeville, Tenn.
Site	Bush Stadum
Feb. 14-16	Evansville at Tennessee Tech
Follow Along	Live Stats
Evansville	Baseball Site | Twitter

Coach Carroll: "We are ready to get the season started.  Our guys have been working hard in the weight room and during practice.  I feel like we have a well balanced team where we won't have to depend on one area of the game to win.  This team has some depth both on the mound and multiple options when it comes to our batting lineup.  I'm proud of our coaching staff throughout pre season to get our team ready to compete this weekend."

Know Your Opponent: Tennessee Tech enters the 2020 season with a new leader in the dugout in head coach Steve Smith. Smith joins the Golden Eagles after a four-season hiatus from coaching, but brings an impressive 744-523-1 career record after spending 21 seasons as the head coach at Baylor. Like the Aces, Tennessee Tech lost its best bat from a season ago after a 22-32 record in 2019, but it returns its second-best hitter. Sophomore John Dyer is back after hitting. 300 last season with 11 home runs and 54 RBI.

Series Notes: The Aces and Golden Eagles don't have much of a history playing one another, meeting just three times. Evansville holds a 2-1 advantage in the series, but TTU won the last meeting, 10-2, in Cookeville, Tenn. on March 11, 2012.

Croner Back on the Mound: One half of the Aces' dynamic pitching duo from last season is returning to the mound for Evansville. Senior leftie Nathan Croner returns to the hill for the Aces in 2020 after leading all Evansville starters in 2019 with a 4.28 ERA and striking out 65 batters. Departing form the duo is Adam Lukas, who was drafted in the 12th round by the Kansas City Royals this summer.

Home Sweet Home: The 2020 season will be the first for Evansville in its newly-renovated stadium. Now known as German American Bank Field at Charles H. Braun Stadium, included in the renovations are a full Astroturf field, padded walls through- out the entire stadium with new fence lines down the first and third base lines, dugout and bullpen renovations as well as a new LED scoreboard.

Top Bat Returning: Junior Tanner Craig returns for the Aces as the top bat back from the 2019 campaign. In 2019, Craig hit .284 with 14 doubles, a triple, and five home runs, while driving in 32 runs for Evansville.

Fresh Faces: Evansville's roster features plenty of familiar faces, but also a handful of newcomers, as well. 16 of the 30 Aces on the 2020 roster are newcomers to the program, including seven transfers.

Aces picked to finish sixth in MVC: In the 2020 Missouri Valley Conference baseball preseason poll, Evansville was tabbed to finish sixth, ahead of Southern Illinois and Valparaiso in the eight-team conference. Dallas Baptist was picked as the favorite to capture the 2020 conference championship, receiving five first-place votes and 61 points, 10 points ahead of second-place Missouri State.